Four of the six Montgomery Public Schools employees who were placed on leave following investigations into improper grade changing in the system are now back at work in the system as they await hearings with the Alabama State Department of Education that could cost them their teaching certificates.

State superintendent Tommy Bice told the Montgomery Advertiser that the four employees were allowed to return to work by the state, but that hearings with all six are still pending as ALSDE attorneys and attorneys for the employees continue to negotiate an agreement on what, if any, punishment the employees might face. So far, all six have had at least one hearing date rescheduled, and most have been rescheduled multiple times.

Some of the employees have been awaiting hearings since December 2012.

"It's simply the legal process and the time it takes," Bice said, explaining why hearings haven't been held yet. "I know that's not a good answer for anyone, but there's a procedure that by law we have to go through. We've been going through that process, with offers and counter-offers, and we feel like we're making progress."

Bice said it was his goal at this point to have the fates of all six MPS employees determined before the start of the new school year.

The Accused

Three of those employees — Robert E. Lee High principal Lorenza Pharrams, Sidney Lanier High principal Michael Gibbs and teacher Betty Cargill — originally were placed on leave in December 2012. Those suspensions, and the suspensions of four other MPS employees at the time, came as a result of a six-week ALSDE investigation following a series of stories in the Advertiser in which dozens of MPS teachers and employees alleged massive improper grade changes had occurred within several district high schools. The other four employees eventually were reinstated in February 2013.

A more extensive ALSDE investigation over the next nine months confirmed almost all of the teachers' allegations in the stories and resulted in two more MPS employees — Jefferson Davis High assistant principal Glenda Harrison and teacher Jacob Holloway — being placed on leave. Former assistant superintendent Lewis Washington, who was fired by MPS for an unrelated issue, was also accused of participating in improper grade changing following the more extensive investigation.

Now, only Washington and Cargill are not back at work, according to Bice.

"When you get into the specifics of each case, you find quickly that they're very different," Bice said. "We've held a number of meetings with these folks and some of those meetings have been very positive."

The Advertiser asked MPS superintendent Margaret Allen, who took over a month after ALSDE released its findings, if she or other MPS officials had spoken with or closely monitored the four employees who have returned to work to ensure their compliance with proper grade change procedures.

MPS spokesman Tom Salter responded to the questions.

"(MPS) has fully cooperated with (ALSDE) from the initial inquiry and we will continue to do so," Salter wrote in an email. "We have met every requirement and submitted the necessary documentation through the interposition officer. There are four MPS employees who were returned to work after the initial investigation. Each was allowed to go back to work while the SDE conducted their inquiry. MPS has no control over the investigation or the timeline. Any information on their current standing with the state will need to be addressed by the SDE."

Salter also said that "system-wide training" on proper grade-change procedures had been provided and that more is scheduled. He also said monitoring of those programs is taking place and that Allen has communicated that she expects rules to be followed.

Pharrams, who is now back as the principal at Lee, was accused by multiple teachers at the school of ignoring their evidence of grades being changed after the teachers submitted them, either by Pharrams or someone on the staff at Lee. Those teachers turned over grade books and grade printout sheets to document the changes, and the Advertiser received independent verification of the documents from a data-entry person within the system whose job it was to monitor the grading the system.

Additionally, former teacher Lesa Keith, who was recently elected to the county school board, provided the Advertiser with recordings from meetings and of a conversation with Pharrams' assistant principal, Janet Reese, in which improper grade changes being carried out by teachers were discussed.

Bice indicated many of those issues stemmed from a lack of understanding by Pharrams and the faculty at Lee on the proper procedures for grade- and credit-recovery programs — two state-approved programs that are in place to aid struggling students.

The courses allow failing students to focus on the one or two portions of a subject that they're struggling with, learn those portions and improve their grades. However, there are strict guidelines on how much improvement can be made, which students are eligible to take the courses, who can teach the courses and how the courses are taught. The courses at Lee violated every rule at one point or another, and the courses at Jeff Davis and Lanier were almost as troubled.

"I am extremely comfortable that (Pharrams) understands what can and can't be done at this point," Bice said. "There were a lot of factors that went into what occurred. I'm not excusing anyone or making excuses for anyone. But those are the facts. That school needs some stability, and the staff there believes he can provide it."

Montgomery attorney James Anderson, whose firm represents Washington, Cargill and Pharrams, echoed Bice's comments and said many of the improper grade changes occurred simply because the teachers and administrators at the schools were under pressure to lower classroom failure rates. They were provided with the programs to lower those rates, Anderson said, but were given no guidance on how to use them.

"That's why all the recovery programs were different at every school — no one knew how to use them the proper way," Anderson said. "Nobody had a clue what was going on. Then you had the teachers who didn't know that any of it could be done or was being done, so they were shocked when the grades would come back different than what they gave. It was a mess."

It didn't go unreported by MPS employees.

Clear problems

A data entry specialist working at Lanier, Edwina Riddlespriger, went all the way to the MPS central office after Gibbs attempted to force her to make improper changes to students' grades on the final day of school in 2011.

Those changes were submitted by Cargill, who ran a portion of the recovery program at Lanier for students in alternative programs, and the grade-change forms lacked three of the five required signatures. Some of those teachers told the Advertiser that they refused to sign off on the changes, feeling the students hadn't earned the grades.

When Gibbs threatened Riddlespriger with disciplinary action for not inputting the new grades, she took her complaint to the AEA and, along with an AEA representative, eventually to Washington and director of human resources Ann Sippial.

Gibbs was required to put in writing that he was requesting the changes. He also issued a letter of reprimand to Riddlespriger for disobeying his directions.

"There were mistakes made," Anderson said. "People just had no idea what was going on. You had a large number of students who (received better grades) the day before graduation."

All the students whose grades were changed were allowed to graduate.

"I don't think the state truly understood just how confused most of the people were until they really got in here and started looking at the information," Anderson said.

Washington was also accused by Jeff Davis teacher Tracy Blackmon of suspending her after she repeatedly refused to sign off on students' recovery course grades because she had evidence the students had cheated on some work. Blackmon also informed Washington that improper "makeup packets" were being used in the recovery courses to boost grades.

Shortly after his termination, Washington was the first MPS administrator to point a finger at Thompson, the former superintendent. He told the Advertiser that Thompson personally met with many principals to express the need to lower student failure rates, that she pushed hard on the use of the recovery courses and that she was aware of and approved every decision he made.

Thompson adamantly and repeatedly denied those allegations and said she had no personal knowledge of improper actions by teachers or administrators.

Whether Thompson is culpable or not isn't clear. Bice chose only to blame the problems on a lack of communication and education. Allen, who has dealt with the fallout in her short tenure, repeatedly has stopped short of blaming Thompson or specific central office personnel for the problems, saying it only matters now that it gets corrected.

Mixed Results

That might not be enough to satisfy the teachers who reported the issues, many of whom suffered retaliation from MPS administrators for speaking out about the practices. Seven of the teachers who provided information for the original stories reached out to the Advertiser in recent weeks to express anger over the four employees going back to work, with many saying they were frustrated by the process.

While saying she believed in Bice and trusts him to do the right thing, Keith said she and many of the teachers who risked their jobs to report the grade changes are beginning to feel somewhat disappointed in the results.

"I would hope, at the very least, some of these people would be reassigned to other jobs so they're no longer in a position to abuse the trust placed in them," Keith said. "Whether the directives to do this came from downtown or a higher ranking administrator, the fact remains that they did do this. They took part in it. That can't go unpunished."

But those leading the investigations seem to have accepted the fact that at least some of the wrongdoing was the result of either ignorance or the misguided notion that they were doing the right thing.

Bice, who once vowed publicly that anyone responsible for "messing with students' grades" would never teach in the state again, has softened considerably, allowing for the possibility now that poor leadership played a bigger role than he initially thought.

Even state school board member Ella Bell, who had a number of harsh things to say about those accused of changing grades and the system itself, is now more concerned with the overall good than individual penalty.

"I didn't see where anyone got any money to change any grades or benefit from it," Bell said. "Montgomery's schools had far greater problems than a few people changing grades for whatever reason they did it. I'm so very pleased with what I see now there. It's moving in the right direction, and isn't that what we want?"

Where are they now?

Lewis Washington

Currently: Not employed by MPS

His story: Washington was fired after being accused of sexual harassment. He wasn't accused of wrongdoing in the grade change scandal until the ALSDE investigation was completed in Sept. 2013. He was accused of several violations, including failing to follow procedures for changing grades, reprimanding two teachers who attempted to report improper changes and directing improper grade changes for several seniors at Lanier.

Jacob Holloway

Currently: Graduation coach Lee High School

His story: Holloway was a grade/credit recovery teacher at Lee. He was accused by ALSDE of several violations of recovery procedures, including giving students higher grades than they were allowed to earn in the courses and giving students grades in courses they had never taken.

Betty Cargill

Currently: Not employed by MPS

Her story: Cargill was in charge of the grade and credit recovery programs for students in alternative programs, such as Saturday school, extended day programs or the PACE program for students with behavioral issues. She was accused of allowing several students into the programs who didn't meet the minimum standards, issuing improper grade-change forms and issuing grades that weren't earned.

Michael Gibbs

Currently: Assistant Principal at Brewbaker Middle

His story: Gibbs was the principal at Lanier when a data entry clerk reported to him that grade-change forms, some of which were presented by Cargill, were filled out improperly. Gibbs is accused of pressuring the clerk to input the grades anyway, despite teachers at his school refusing to sign off on them, and then reprimanding the clerk for disobeying his orders.

Brenda Harrison

Currently: Principal Capital Heights Middle

Her story: As an assistant principal at Jeff Davis, Harrison was accused of calling a number of teachers into her office at the end of the school year in 2012, providing them a list of failing students and telling them to contact the students and provide them work they could do to secure a passing grade.

Lorenza Pharrams

Currently: Principal at Lee High School

His story: Pharrams is a popular figure at Lee, with both students and many of the faculty members. But more than two dozen Lee teachers painted a disturbing picture of chaos when it came to grade changes, oversight and direction under him. He was accused of failing to monitor credit recovery courses, pressuring teachers to change grades and improperly promoting students.